Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Megillah 7b - Seudas Purim at Night

The Rema brings down that there is a mitzvah to have a seudah also on the night of purim (after ta'anis ester). It seems very meduyak in the gemara bec. the gemara seems to take the perspective of assuming that one would have a seudah at night. It does not say that one should not have their seudah at night, rather that when one eats their seudah at night, it is not sufficient to fulfill their obligation of seudas purim. I think that this is also implied by tosafos 4a who explains that the primary mitzvah of reading the megillah is by day, just that r' yehoshua ben lavi is mechadesh that it should be done by night as well (that is why we make shehechiyanu again by day). Tosafos comments that we find a parallel to this by seduas purim, that the primary seudah is by day. It seems that the geder of seudah by night is similar to the megillah at night, and although it is not the ikar, it is still a mitzvah.

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